"In what has become a kind of presidential right-of-passage, the president (or really, the federal agencies that answer to him) has been pushing through a series of last-minute regulations that have the force of law. Everything from pollution controls to family-leave standards can be set by these rules.
And you thought your high school government teacher said that Congress made all the laws.
These de-facto laws are called "midnight rules" or "midnight regulations" because they happen at the end -- or midnight period -- of an administration. If the rules are published in the Federal Register by Friday, Nov. 21, they'll be very hard for President-elect Obama to reverse when he gets into office.
And that's the point. Sure, the administration had eight years to get a lot of this stuff accomplished. But according senior research fellow at George Mason University Veronique de Rugy, most midnight regulations "cater to special interests," and "that is why they are hurried into effect without the usual checks and balances."
...
The Wall Street Journal reports that the new rules, "open the way for commercial development of oil shale on federal land, allow truckers to drive for longer periods, and add certain restrictions on employee time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act."
Friday, November 21, 2008
Man chainsaws his head off to protest his eviction
The last resident in a block of flats due to be demolished cut his own head off with a chainsaw to highlight the 'injustice' of being asked to move out, an inquest heard today.
Desperate David Phyall, 50, plugged the electric chainsaw into the mains and attached a timer to the socket.
He then wrapped sellotape around the machine's trigger to secure it in the 'on' position and tied the handle of the saw to a table leg to hold it steady.
read article here---------------------------
this man should be a model for what to do if carla ever evicts anyone from the toast.
the man, the myth, the mustache: tom o'dell
"One of O'Dell's famous terms is "bigguns" used to describe the large knives and swords that he sells. He has also clothed himself in camouflage and combat boots to appear on the show."
i'm a little worried that the only person laughing at all this tom o'dell talk is paul l...
harold mccoo of the cable value network fails
sadly our old friend o'dell wasn't around to assess the situation...
another scummy priest...
"GREELEY, Colo. – A Catholic priest convicted of indecent exposure for jogging naked around a track at a high school has been sentenced to five years probation.
Rev. Robert Whipkey must also complete 100 hours of community service and register as a sex offender under the sentence handed down Thursday in Weld County District Court.
The Denver archdiocese said Whipkey, of Frederick, was placed on leave last year. He officiated at parishes in Frederick, Mead and Erie. He was arrested about an hour before sunrise on June 22, 2007.
Dressed in a blue shirt and slacks, Whipkey told Judge Timothy Kerns that the conviction has ruined his life and that he is unemployed."
-----------------------------
the only good priest i've ever known:
Rev. Robert Whipkey must also complete 100 hours of community service and register as a sex offender under the sentence handed down Thursday in Weld County District Court.
The Denver archdiocese said Whipkey, of Frederick, was placed on leave last year. He officiated at parishes in Frederick, Mead and Erie. He was arrested about an hour before sunrise on June 22, 2007.
Dressed in a blue shirt and slacks, Whipkey told Judge Timothy Kerns that the conviction has ruined his life and that he is unemployed."
-----------------------------
the only good priest i've ever known:
smells like rotten meat.
Mass. cops puzzled by butcher-quality meat chunks
Thu Nov 20, 8:36 pm ET
"FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – Police are trying to figure out who keeps leaving chunks of meat on the town common, and why. Police said residents have been finding butcher-quality cuts of meat on the common for about five weeks. In the most recent incident, a resident discovered a large piece of raw, unwrapped meat, along with what appeared to be a liver and some bones on Tuesday.
Police Lt. Paul Shastany said someone may be trying to poison animals, so the meat has been sent for testing."
Thu Nov 20, 8:36 pm ET
"FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – Police are trying to figure out who keeps leaving chunks of meat on the town common, and why. Police said residents have been finding butcher-quality cuts of meat on the common for about five weeks. In the most recent incident, a resident discovered a large piece of raw, unwrapped meat, along with what appeared to be a liver and some bones on Tuesday.
Police Lt. Paul Shastany said someone may be trying to poison animals, so the meat has been sent for testing."
wow.
i mean, the fucking guy is literally stuffing chickens into his hole of death the whole interview...
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Made in USA: China's All Seeing Eye
This Rolling Stone article is a bit lengthy but it is worth reading till the end. I could also not help but remember one of the most famous TV ads of all time.
As fate would have it, the pc/mac boom turns out to be facilitating the creation of a Big Brother state rather than liberating people from it. But the broader question is whether people really need privacy. Are you willing to give up some of your freedom in order to gain temporary security (see quotes)?
As fate would have it, the pc/mac boom turns out to be facilitating the creation of a Big Brother state rather than liberating people from it. But the broader question is whether people really need privacy. Are you willing to give up some of your freedom in order to gain temporary security (see quotes)?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
it's ON
I made my first e-video with the miniscule amount of footage i have:
pretty basic, but everything's working so im pumped. If anyone has any good ideas, lets film it, and become u-tube celebrities!!
pretty basic, but everything's working so im pumped. If anyone has any good ideas, lets film it, and become u-tube celebrities!!
Ken Griffey Jr. Named Public Diplomacy Envoy:
From CNN.com
" He has thrilled sports fans for over twenty years with his hitting and fielding exploits. But can Major League baseball star Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a grand slam for the State Department?
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named Griffey a public diplomacy envoy Tuesday, tasking the All-Star slugger with spreading "the values of the United States" in large part by helping to spark "interest in America and in our culture."
"Public diplomacy must be a dialogue," Rice said after meeting with Griffey in Washington. "This dialogue must extend to every citizen in every country, especially to young people."
She noted that Griffey is uniquely qualified to engage young people given his stature as one of the best-known players in what is arguably the country's most famous sport.
"This is quite an honor," Griffey noted. "I think youth is the most important thing. (I am) looking forward to this opportunity to teach kids (and help) develop them."
-----------------------------------------------
Seriously, what kind of joke is this?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
speaking of not making cigarette ads like they used to....
"yeah barney, winston tastes good... like a cigarette should!"
Pedroia Wins AL MVP
Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia has won the American League Most Valuable Player award.
Pedroia got 16 of the 28 first-place votes and easily beat out Minnesota Twins slugger Justin Morneau.
Pedroia became the first AL second baseman to win the award since Nellie Fox in 1959.
Five players drew first-place votes. Record-setting closer Francisco Rodriguez got one of them and finished sixth overall.
LINK
Bruins v Canadiens
I've started to watch the Bruins and hockey in general for the first time since Freshman year when I was living in Montreal, and when I remembered this fight, I had to post it.
Ancient Greeks pre-empted Dead Parrot sketch
ATHENS (Reuters) – "I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it."
For those who believe the ancient Greeks thought of everything first, proof has been found in a 4th century AD joke book featuring an ancestor of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch where a man returns a parrot to a shop, complaining it is dead.
The 1,600-year-old work entitled "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," one of the world's oldest joke books, features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher said Friday.
"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"
In a British comedy act Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, first aired in 1969 and regularly voted one of the funniest ever, the pet-shop owner says the parrot, a "Norwegian Blue," is not dead, just "resting" or "pining for the fjords."
For those who believe the ancient Greeks thought of everything first, proof has been found in a 4th century AD joke book featuring an ancestor of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch where a man returns a parrot to a shop, complaining it is dead.
The 1,600-year-old work entitled "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," one of the world's oldest joke books, features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher said Friday.
"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"
In a British comedy act Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, first aired in 1969 and regularly voted one of the funniest ever, the pet-shop owner says the parrot, a "Norwegian Blue," is not dead, just "resting" or "pining for the fjords."
arrrgh matey
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – In a dramatic escalation of high seas crime, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi supertanker loaded with crude hundreds of miles off the coast of East Africa — defeating the security web of warships trying to protect vital shipping lanes.
The takeover demonstrates the bandits' heightened ambitions and capabilities: Never before have they seized such a giant ship so far out to sea. Maritime experts warned the broad daylight attack, reported by the U.S. Navy on Monday, was an alarming sign of the difficulty of patrolling a vast stretch of ocean key to oil and other cargo traffic.
The MV Sirius Star, a brand new tanker with a 25-member crew, was seized at about 10 a.m. Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the Navy said. The area lies far south of the zone where warships have increased their patrols this year in the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest channels in the world, leading to and from the Suez Canal, and the scene of most past attacks.
The massive supertanker would seem to present a daunting target for the pirates, who usually operate in small speedboats. At 1,080 feet, it is the length of an aircraft carrier and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.
But experts said its crew may have felt a false sense of security so far from shore, even though pirates have repeatedly demonstrated their skill in taking down big prizes.
Details of Saturday's attack were not known, but in past seizures, pirates have used ropes and ladders to climb the hull — and on large ships, the crew often doesn't notice them until it's too late. On the Sirius Star, the attackers likely would have had to scale about 30 feet from the water to the deck.
It was not clear if the Sirius Star had any armed security on board. In past attacks, alert crews have fended off pirates trying to climb the sides, using water hoses to knock them away. But the pirates have struck back: In April, they fired a rocket-propelled grenade that punched a hole in the side of a Japanese oil tanker, spewing oil into the sea, in an unsuccessful attempt to capture it.
read here
these guys are badass. we should get copyrights and write a screenplay quick...
The takeover demonstrates the bandits' heightened ambitions and capabilities: Never before have they seized such a giant ship so far out to sea. Maritime experts warned the broad daylight attack, reported by the U.S. Navy on Monday, was an alarming sign of the difficulty of patrolling a vast stretch of ocean key to oil and other cargo traffic.
The MV Sirius Star, a brand new tanker with a 25-member crew, was seized at about 10 a.m. Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the Navy said. The area lies far south of the zone where warships have increased their patrols this year in the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest channels in the world, leading to and from the Suez Canal, and the scene of most past attacks.
The massive supertanker would seem to present a daunting target for the pirates, who usually operate in small speedboats. At 1,080 feet, it is the length of an aircraft carrier and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.
But experts said its crew may have felt a false sense of security so far from shore, even though pirates have repeatedly demonstrated their skill in taking down big prizes.
Details of Saturday's attack were not known, but in past seizures, pirates have used ropes and ladders to climb the hull — and on large ships, the crew often doesn't notice them until it's too late. On the Sirius Star, the attackers likely would have had to scale about 30 feet from the water to the deck.
It was not clear if the Sirius Star had any armed security on board. In past attacks, alert crews have fended off pirates trying to climb the sides, using water hoses to knock them away. But the pirates have struck back: In April, they fired a rocket-propelled grenade that punched a hole in the side of a Japanese oil tanker, spewing oil into the sea, in an unsuccessful attempt to capture it.
read here
these guys are badass. we should get copyrights and write a screenplay quick...
why mccain lost
"As John McCain's interactive campaign is called disorganized and disconnected by some Monday morning quarterbacks, one thing's for sure. The Republican hopeful's Web team spent far less on online advertising than the Obama camp.
The McCain campaign spent just over $1.5 million on Web media, according to data representing campaign 2008 expenditures into September. Obama's campaign spent around $8 million in '08 as of October."
just an interesting bit. but what's even more interesting? disgraced alaskan senator ted stevens explaining that the internet is not something you just dump something on, it's not a big truck, it's a series of tubes people.
hint: the comedic quote is at the end of the video
The McCain campaign spent just over $1.5 million on Web media, according to data representing campaign 2008 expenditures into September. Obama's campaign spent around $8 million in '08 as of October."
just an interesting bit. but what's even more interesting? disgraced alaskan senator ted stevens explaining that the internet is not something you just dump something on, it's not a big truck, it's a series of tubes people.
hint: the comedic quote is at the end of the video
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